THE MAIN IDEA
Disciples of Jesus have no choice but to become like Jesus.

JESUS CALLS US TO BE WITH HIM
When Jesus calls, we come to Jesus to be with Him. Jesus is calling us to have an intimate, personal relationship with Him. But there is a deep, personal cost to having an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus. Having an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus doesn’t mean being a nominal Christian or being a casual Christian or being a consumer Christian. Having an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ requires us to be fully devoted followers of Jesus (going where He goes, doing what He does, and saying what He says) and to be fully devoted learners of Jesus. Most of all, it requires that Jesus be the Lord over our lives. An intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ is the costliest relationship to have. It will require us to surrender our whole life to Him (Mark 8:34- 38). But an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ is also the most valuable, the most important, the most enriching, the most life-giving relationship you can have, too.

JESUS CALLS US TO BE ON MISSION
Jesus called His disciples so that He might send them out to preach the gospel and to drive out demons and also to heal people. That is why they were called apostles, which means “sent out ones.” Jesus calls us to be on mission, but that doesn’t mean that we all need to give up our careers or our future careers to become missionaries or evangelists or pastors (although, those are noble careers). When Jesus calls us to be on mission with Him, He is calling us to prioritize and to pursue the purposes of God in our lives— not to prioritize and to pursue the American Dream (Matthew 6:33). In fact, being with Jesus and being on mission with Jesus are integrally related (Matthew 28:19-20). Jesus Himself is on a mission in this world to seek and to save the lost. And if we want to be with Jesus, then we had better be on mission with Jesus to seek and to save the lost too. And that is why we have started house church ministry here in Canvas. Because most Christians have a difficult time understanding what it truly means to be on mission with Jesus. But when we are doing house church ministry right, we will just naturally find ourselves being on mission with Jesus. And we will naturally find ourselves being with Jesus.

JESUS CALLS US TO BE TRANSFORMED
The destiny of every disciple of Jesus Christ is to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29-30). And that is what happened to the original apostles who remained in the grace of Jesus Christ. Only Judas Iscariot fell away. Jesus transformed Peter from a proud, boastful, and stubborn rock made of sand into a solid foundation upon which Jesus would build up His church. Jesus transformed James and John from ambitious, merciless, jealous, and hyper-competitive opportunists into “sons of thunder” who boldly proclaimed the gospel and gave their lives for it, as well. And even the fact that we don’t know anything about James, son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, or Simon the Zealot is significant. Because to be a disciple of Jesus is more important than anything that we actually do. No matter who they were and what they did, simply because they were His disciples, Jesus served them all. And that is why Jesus ultimately calls us to be His disciples—to serve us (Matthew 11:28-30). And as Jesus serves us as His disciples, we become transformed into His likeness. (2 Corinthians 3:18).

DISCUSSION QUESTION
When you were growing up, who did you want to be like, and why? Deeper question: What is the benefit of being like Jesus?